Measuring results is a must. We bet you have read about it quite often. But, how to do it the right way? And over all, how to know the sales that comes directly from your social media campaigns? Just follow these simple steps... ;)

15

Jan 2013

You should actually know if every campaign has worked as you expected, according to your goals. However, many small businesses do not have enough time or tech knowledge to do so. It’s not easy. It’s not difficult either. You only need a little help: what are your best chances? There are plenty of tools in the market that might be helpful. What is the best tool to use? Under my opinion it’s Google Analytics so far. How to use it? Keep on reading…

Along this post you’ll learn how to easily measure social media metrics using Google Analytics, including sales coming from social sources. I won’t refer to these metrics as R.O.I. though (Return on Investment). I’ve always thought that does not properly entitle all new social media metrics.

How to segment your social sources

First, you’ll need to know what social platforms are referring traffic to your website or blog. Then, after you choose those you are interesting the most in, you’ll have to set them up separately. To do so, just log in your Google Analytics account and follow these easy steps:

From “Standard Reporting” (up in your account) go to the left column and click over “Traffic Sources” -> “Sources” -> “All Traffic”. That way you’ll get the list with the social platforms that actually are driving visits to your site. Select those of them more relevant to your interests.

While doing your customized list, take into account that some sources use several domains such as Facebook (facebook.com and m.facebook.com). On the other hand you’ll find domains coming from shorten url tools (bit.ly or tinyurl.com)

Now go to “Advanced Segments” (left corner up in the page) -> “New Custome Segment” (down on your right). Click over it.

You’ll see a window where you should fill up the following blanks: Name the source (i.e. Facebook). Then select “Source” from the pull-down menu and add the domain of the source you’re setting up (let’s keep using Facebook: facebook.com). Then fill the second line up again adding the second Facebook’s domain (m.facebook.com)

Repeat with the rest of your chosen sources (Twitter, Google+, Pinterest…). In case you need some help, here are the main social sources:

twitter.com

t.co (also Twitter)

hootsuite

tweetdeck

bit.ly (shortener)

facebook.com

m.facebook.com

plus.url.google.com (Google+)

linkedin

youtube

reddit

digg

delicious

stumbleupon

ycombinator

flickr

myspace

popurls

(Source: Eugen Oprea at Social Media Examiner)

However, you will have to take into account other less popular sources.

Get to know your sales coming from social media

Google Analytics lets you filter results according to your goals. You can list as many goals as needed (up to 5), but we know you are probably thinking of one over all: Sales coming from social media.

To set them up, you’ll have to access to your Admin page (go to the bottom up in your right) and then click over the link of your account name. Then, select “Goals” -> Click on +Goals and fill up all blanks as follows:

Keep in mind that if your goal is “Sales” you’ll have to include just the end of the URL you use to say “goodbye” to your customer on your website, once the purchase has been done. Do not write the whole URL, just the end without the domain (i.e. /thankyou.html).

This goal will allow you to get information about all clients that finished the purchase. In addition, if you filter by “Advanced Segments” (from Standard Reports) and click one or more of the segmented social sources you set up previously, you’ll have the number of visits referred to that URL (/thankyou.html) from social media along with more useful data.

So now, let’s get back to the botton “Traffic Sources” -> “Sources” -> “All Traffic”. Then, filter results by one or more of the sources you segmented (from the bottom “Segmented Sources”). Now you can look for any information you want of users coming from those selected sources, even a comparison between them (as shown in the previous image). Go to “Public” from the column of your left and you’ll have demographic details, behaviors…

What you should never forget is that Google Analytics gives you many useful metrics you’ll discover just surfing through the tool. Let’s see. Now it’s your turn. What other data have you found while following the steps on this post? Let us know on comments!

Also, follow the latest trends and info about social media via our Twitter or Google+ accounts, find new pictures and infographics on Pinterest or join our interesting conversations with other specialists on the fanpage and LinkedIn Group. I’ll be waiting for you!